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The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office will not issue a perjury charge against a high ranking former Detroit police official in connection with the murder investigation that led to Davontae Sanford's arrest in 2007.

The charge, sought by Michigan State Police against former Deputy Chief James Tolbert, was denied Tuesday by prosecutors, who said in a statement they can’t prove perjury beyond a reasonable doubt.

Prosecutors said the “most significant barrier to charging this case is the key witness, Davontae Sanford.”

Davontae Sanford talks to the media along with his family, a day after he was released from prison at the Total Life Christian Ministries Church in Detroit on Thursday, June 8, 2016. His mother, Taminko Sanford-Tilmon wipes emotional tears as he speaks.(Photo: Jessica J. Trevino, Detroit Free Press)

Sanford, who spent nearly nine years in prison for a quadruple homicide that another man has claimed he committed, declined to testify against Tolbert, because the charges against Sanford have not yet been dismissed by the court, the prosecutor’s office said in a 5-page press release announcing its decision. It included a portion of a letter from an attorney for Sanford dated July 11.

Valerie Newman and other lawyers representing Sanford said prosecutors left out details of Sanford's position.

“It is outrageous to blame an innocent person who’s already had almost nine years of their lives taken away from them,” Newman said. “He is willing to testify. He is willing to fully cooperate with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. …

“That is a red herring. … They have a commitment from him that as soon as his case is dismissed, he would testify.”

In June, Wayne Circuit Court Judge Brian Sullivan tossed Sanford's convictions and ordered him released. But Sullivan is still considering a motion to dismiss the charges against Sanford. An opinion is expected soon.

Michigan State Police spokeswoman Shanon Banner said in an emailed statement: “It’s the purview of the prosecutor’s office to review warrant requests. We defer to their judgment.”

The statute of limitations to file a charge against Tolbert expires today, Wayne County spokeswoman Maria Miller said in an email to the Free Press.

Prosecutors had long opposed efforts to free Sanford, who confessed to killing four people when he was 14 and pleaded guilty in the case. Just weeks after Sanford was convicted, Detroit hit man Vincent Smothers claimed responsibility for the killings.

Supporters say Sanford told police during their interrogations what they wanted to hear so he could go back to his home. They also said Sanford had poor legal representation when he accepted the deal to plead guilty to second-degree murder. He lived nearby and was arrested standing outside his home near the crime scene.

A Michigan State Police investigation, which was requested by the prosecutor's office, turned up the evidence that Tolbert lied, a development that Prosecutor Kym Worthy called significant in her decision to drop opposition to Sanford's release.

Last September, Tolbert told State Police investigators that he had helped Sanford with a crime-scene drawing during the original investigation. Worthy said the drawing was one of the "building blocks" in the case.

Tolbert previously had testified in 2010 that Sanford created the drawing entirely on his own.

The request for the warrant was based on the discrepancies between the statements made five years apart, prosecutors said.

“Tolbert indicated several times that he did not remember specific facts about the Runyon Street homicide investigation,” prosecutors said in the news release. “He repeatedly indicated that his memory of the events were not clear in his mind, due to the passage of time and the large number of cases he has worked on since these homicides took place.”

Prosecutors said Tolbert was never told about the inconsistencies of his prior statement.

In the news release, Worthy said: "The obvious question is why this office could move to dismiss a case where four people were killed based on James Tolbert's interview with Michigan State Police, but not charge him with perjury? As I have stated, the building blocks of our case were severely undermined by this interview and we requested that the case be dismissed."

It went on to say: “The bottom line is that there is an important legal distinction between acting on evidence that undermines a conviction, and proving beyond a reasonable doubt that someone has committed perjury.”